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ExclusiveDeep-sea cable cutting can be a weapon of deterrence like nukes, RETN CEO says

Global internet service provider says the true threat of subsea cable cutting tech is its psychological power rather than sabotage

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China and the US were notably absent from a list of 17 Asian and European countries calling for collaboration on defence strategies to protect vulnerable submarine cables during conflicts. Photo: Shutterstock Images
Holly Chik
The vulnerability of submarine cables during conflicts has made seabed infrastructure a fresh concern for global communication and maritime safety, prompting 17 Asian and European nations to step up collaboration on defence strategies in recent months.

But the two largest marine powers, China and the United States, were not among those countries.

From the blow-up of the Nord Stream pipeline to the development of new technology such as China’s deep-sea cable cutter, the seabed has become the newest front in geopolitics.
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Yet, given that cable cuts have been mostly accidental so far, the real power of cable cutter technology is in its psychological effect as a tool of hybrid warfare, according to Tony O’Sullivan, CEO of global internet service provider RETN.

“It does not have quite the same devastating impact with a single use, but it is exactly like a nuclear weapon in a sense that it is not the actual use of it, [but] the threat of the use of it is the bigger issue,” O’Sullivan said in Hong Kong.

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“It is about creating an unease in a population with the threat that something might actually happen, and therefore disturbing their normal operations of government or political system.

“I do not see the actual idea of cable cuts as the threat. I see the threat to the internet more coming from naivety about network design.”

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